Sources Of Stress Flashcards
What are 3 sources of stress
Life changes
Daily hassles
Workplace stress
What are life changes
- Major events happen in peoples lives from time to time and cause a individual to experience stress
What do these significant life changes require
And adjutant to an individuals behaviour or way of living
Examples of life changes
- Divorce
- new job
- jail term
- retirement
- pregnancy
- holiday
What is the Standardised measurement tool to measure life changes called
Social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)
psychologists who cane up with the SRRS
Holmes and Rahe
Describe the SRRS
- scale consists of consist of 43 life events
- individual identifies which events they are experienced within a specific time period eg 3 months
- each event has a score in term of life change units (LCU)
Eg death of spouse 100 LCU and minor libation of law 11LCU - score of 150 or more increased chance of stress related health breakdown by 30%
Name of Key study within life chnages
Rahe et al
rahe et al study
Aim
-used a adapted version of SRRS to to investigate the relationship between stress and illness
- called schedule of recent experiences(SRE)
Ptps
- “Normal pupation” posed to previous studies focused on people already in hospital
- 264 men who where navel and marine personnel serving aboard 3 US navy cruisers
Procedure
- men where asked to complete the SRE for events they ahs experienced in previous 2 years
- SRE adapted to be more specific to military experinces = produced their LCU score
- during 6 - 8 month tour of duty a record was kept on how many times they visited the sick bay as well s type and severity of illness = produced illness score
Findings
- small but significant positive correlation between LCU score n the illness score of +1.18
- those who scored low on S had low levels of illness
Conclusion
- support link between life changes and physical illness plausible link of stress
- overall amount of emotional and mental effort required to deal with a life event that creates stress
Evaluation of life changes
- studies using SRRS correlation HOWEVER a correlation between life changes unit score and I’ll halt does not prove that from life event cause illness. All manner of other reasons could be used to explain the link, eg general ill health could be causing the stress of life events
- SSRS assume stressor affects people the same way, Iife events on the SRRS
Will have different meaning and cause different amounts of stress to different people eg degree of divorce - suggests individual differences in the extent to which people perceive the life events as stressful
Who designed a hassles and uplift scale (HSUP)
Kanner et al
What does the HSUP consist of
117 items
What are daily hassles
Irritating, frustrating, distressing demands that to some degree characterise everyday transactions with the environment
Examples of daily hassles
Financial problems, arguments, losing items
What are daily uplifts
- Positive experiences that we have every day
- can counteract the damaging effects of stress
Exsamples of daily uplifts
Completing task, getting enough sleep, compliments
Why do daily hassles cause more stress than life changes
Accumulation creates a build up of minor daily stressors results in more serious stress reaction eg depression and anxiety
Kanner et al key study
Procedure:
- 100 American ptp 52 F + 48 M all white, well educated and middle class
- asked to circle the events on both scales that they had experienced the previous month and rate each according to severity for hassles and frequency for uplifts
- continue to do so once a month for 9 months
- each ptp also completed a life scale event scale 6 months proceeding the beginning of the study and also for the 2 yearly periods prior to that and again at the end of the study
- 2 measures used to assess the psychological well being of the ptps
- Hopkins symptom checker asses depression ad anxiety
- Bradbury morale scale - assess ositive and negative emotion
- completed thee every month
Findings
- hassles scale tended to me more accurate predictor of stressor related problems eg anxiety and depression than SRRS
- uplifts had a positive effect on the stress levels of women but not men
Evaluation of daily stressor
- individual differences not considered = perceive ad react to stress differently = some may be able to cope better than others
- correlational, do not prove that the stress from ally hassle is causing the illness eg cold may be a hassle but virus is causing the sickness, illness is actually causing the hassle
Daily hassles vs life change - evaluation
- Kanner -daily hassles greater source of stress supported by other research which found daily hassles were linked to greater psychological and physical dysfunction to ere major negative life events
Amplification effect
- Life changes and daily stressors combine cause stress
- dealing with mental and physical effort of dealing with life change that makes us more susceptible to the effects of daily hassles
- more vulnerable to hassles having amplification effects
2 causes for workplace stress
Lack of control and workload
Lack of control
Not being able to manage your own workload
Workload
Work overload eg number of hours an individual spends working
Key study for lack of control
Marmot et al
Aim: relationship between low job control stress in the workplace and illness
Procedure:
- 2 studies, collected data from a sample of over 10,000 civil servants working at whitehall
- assumed low pay grade employees would experience low job control stress
- completed questionnaire = info about their h job role, lifestyle, choices, socioeconomic status and physical health
- researcher assessed the level ofjobcontrolby self report questionnaire and by assessments by personal managers and this was compared to levels of stress related illness
Findings:
- clear differences found between the workers pay grade type in terms of mortality rates and illness
- less control 4x more likely to die of a heart attack
- suffer from stress related illness eg a cancer, ulcers even when other factors eg diet taken into account
Conclusion
- lack of control linked to stress related illness
evaluation of lack of control
- correlation = appears an association between low control and stress related illness
- cannot assume low control is causing illness
- workers with poor health are likely to achieve higher grades where control is greater which would explain finding just as well
Key study for workload
Johansson et al
Procedure
- 28 Swedish sawmill workers
- high risk group (low control and high workloads) compared with low risk group
- matched on factors such as eduction and job experience
- recorded daily levels of adrenaline Nora adrenaline in the workers on work days and weekends to assess stress
- obtained self report of job satisfaction and illness
Findings
- high risk group = higher illness and higher level of adrenaline in urine compared to low risk
- self report confirmed high risk had greater workload and lower control
Conclusion
- stress from being overloaded at work can make people Ill
- I,privation is stress is reduced then people will not get ill and productivity of company can be improved
Evaluation of workload
Strengths
- factors of workload and lack of control combined to for, job strain model - recognise is due to a combination of both new version of job strain model includes lack of social support which didn’t do this previous
Supported by Research
- found 17000 women in usa over a period ten years
- those in strain 40% greater risk of cardiovascular disorder and 88% increased risk of suffering a heart attack
Weaknesses
- don’t acknowledge individual differences as we have different perception of our ability to cope with high workload and lack of control
